Reasons for the slow uptake of embodied carbon estimation in the Sri Lankan building sector

Global carbon reduction is not merely a responsibility of environmentally advanced developed countries, but also a responsibility of developing countries regardless of their less impact on global carbon emissions. In recognition of that, Sri Lanka as a developing country has initiated promoting green building construction as one reduction strategy. However, notwithstanding the increasing attention on Embodied Carbon (EC) reduction in the global building sector, they still mostly focus on Operational Carbon (OC) reduction (through improving operational energy). An adequate attention has not yet been given on EC estimation and reduction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the reasons for the slow uptake of EC estimation in the Sri Lankan building sector. To achieve this aim, 16 numbers of global barriers to estimate EC were identified through existing literature. They were then subjected to a pilot survey to identify the significant reasons for the slow uptake of EC estimation in the Sri Lankan building sector. A questionnaire with a three-point Likert scale was used to this end. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that 11 of 16 challenges/ barriers are highly relevant as reasons for the slow uptake in estimating EC in buildings in Sri Lanka while the other five challenges/ barriers remain as moderately relevant reasons. Further, the findings revealed that there are no low relevant reasons.Eventually, the paper concluded that all the known reasons are significant to the Sri Lankan building sector and it is necessary to address them in order to upturn the attention on EC reduction. Keywords — Embodied carbon emissions, embodied carbon estimation, global carbon reduction, Sri Lankan building secto

Analisakepuasan Pelanggan Terhadap Kualitas Layanan Telekomunikasi Telkomflexi Area Jember

Menyongsongera globalisasi dan perdagangan bebas dewasa ini dimana persaingan antarperusahaan semakin ketat maka PT. Telkom sebagai Perusahaan yang bergerakdibidang jasa telekomunikasi berupaya untuk meningkatkan kualitas jasanya.Dalam USAhanya untuk meningkatkan kualitas jasa maka perlu diadakan suatupenelitian tentang tingkat kepuasan konsumen pengguna jasa telekomunikasiTelkomFlexi area Jember dibidang bauran pemasaran dan kualitas pelayananterhadap kualitas jasa yang telah diberikan kepada konsumen selama ini. Metodeanalisis yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah dengan Metode AnalisisStatistik Inferensial untuk menguji pengaruh antara variable bebas terhadapveriabel tergantung dan menguji hipotesis yang diajukan. Teknik pengujianhipotesis dilakukan dengan menggunakan analisis regresi linier berganda untukmengetahui pengaruh kepuasan pelanggan TelkomFlexi area Jember. Hasil analisismenunjukkan bahwa fungsi regresi linear berganda yang dapat menjelaskanpengaruh variabel harga (X1), produk (X2), distribusi (X3), promosi (X4), keandalan (X5),daya tanggap (X6), keyakinan (X7), dan empathy (X8)terhadap faktor kepuasan pelanggan (Y) adalah Y=0,01523 + 0,033 X1– 0,115 X2 +0,107 X3 + 0,466 X4 + 0,0697 X5 + 0,0113 X6 + 0,00263 X7 + 0,116 X8 + ei,sehingga disimpulkan bahwa variabel-variabel tersebut secara simultan mempunyaipengaruh yang signifikan terhadap kepuasan pelanggan TelkomFlexi Area Jember

A model for ranking and selecting integrity tests in a distributed database

Checking the consistency of a database state generally involves the execution of integrity tests on the database, which verify whether the database is satisfying its constraints or not. This paper presents the various types of integrity tests as reported in previous works and discusses how these tests can significantly improve the performance of the constraint checking mechanisms without limiting to a certain type of test. Having these test alternatives and selecting the most suitable test is an issue that needs to be tackled. In this regard, the authors propose a model to rank and select the suitable test to be evaluated given several alternative tests. The model uses the amount of data transferred across the network, the number of sites involved, and the amount of data accessed as the parameters in deciding the suitable test. Several analyses have been performed to evaluate the proposed model, and results show that the model achieves a higher percentage of local processing as compared to the previous selected strategies

Preference evaluation techniques of preference queries in database

Preference queries are considered as a major necessity tool in today’s database management system (DBMS). Adopting preference queries in the database application systems enable users to determine more than one objective in the submitted query which result into more accurate results compared to the traditional queries. Preference queries prefer one data item (tuple) p over the other data item (tuple) q if and only if p is better than q in all dimensions (attributes) and not worse than q in at least one dimension (attribute). Several preference evaluation techniques for preference queries have been proposed which aimed at finding the “best” results that meet the user preferences. These include but not limited to top-k, skyline, ranked skylines, k-representative dominance, k-dominance,top-k dominating, and k-frequency. This paper attempts to survey and analyze the following preference evaluation techniques of query processing in database systems: top-k, skyline, top-k dominating, k-dominance, and k-frequency by highlighting the strengths and the weaknesses of each technique

Skyline queries over incomplete multidimensional database

In recent years, there has been much focus on skyline queries that incorporate and provide more flexible query operators that return data items which are dominating other data items in all attributes (dimensions).Several techniques for skyline have been proposed in the literature.Most of the existing skyline techniques aimed to find the skyline query results by supposing that the values of dimensions are always present for every data item.In this paper we aim to evaluate the skyline preference queries in which some dimension values are missing.We proposed an approach for answering preference queries in a database by utilizing the concept of skyline technique.The skyline set selected for a given query operation is then optimized so that the missing values are replaced with some approximate values that provide a skyline answer with complete data.This will significantly reduce the number of comparisons between data items.Beside that, the number of retrieved skyline data items is reduced and this guides the users to select the most appropriate data items from the several alternative complete skyline data items

Maternal iron status in early pregnancy and birth outcomes : insights from the Baby's Vascular health and Iron in Pregnancy study

Date of Acceptance: 16/03/2015 Acknowledgements N. A. A. was funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship (WT87789). H. J. M. and H. E. H. are supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services. N. A. B. S. is supported by Cerebra. The authors’ contributions are as follows: N. A. A. was responsible for organising the study conduct, data collection and database management, performed the statistical analysis, interpreted the results and drafted the paper. N. A. A., N. A. B. S., J. E. C., H. J. M. and D. C. G. contributed to the study concept and design, and interpretation of results. H. J. M. and H. E. H. analysed the laboratory samples. J. E. C. and D. C. G. provided advice on statistical strategy and analysis. All authors have fully participated in the reporting stage and have critically reviewed and approved the final draft of the paper. The authors declare no conflict of interestPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Associations of maternal iron intake and hemoglobin in pregnancy with offspring vascular phenotypes and adiposity at Age 10: findings from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

Background: iron deficiency is common during pregnancy. Experimental animal studies suggest that it increases cardiovascular risk in the offspring.Objective: to examine the relationship between maternal pregnancy dietary and supplement iron intake and hemoglobin, with offspring’s arterial stiffness (measured by carotid-radial pulse wave velocity), endothelial function (measured by brachial artery flow mediated dilatation), blood pressure, and adiposity (measured by body mass index), test for mediation by cord ferritin, birth weight, gestational age, and child dietary iron intake, and for effect modification by maternal vitamin C intake and offspring sex.Design: prospective data from 2958 mothers and children pairs at 10 years of age enrolled in an English birth cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study for Parents and Children (ALSPAC), was analysed.Results: 2639 (89.2%) mothers reported dietary iron intake in pregnancy below the UK reference nutrient intake of 14.8 mg/day. 1328 (44.9%) reported taking iron supplements, and 129 (4.4%) were anemic by 18 weeks gestation. No associations were observed apart from maternal iron intake from supplements with offspring systolic blood pressure (?0.8 mmHg, 99% CI ?1.7 to 0, P = 0.01 in the sample with all relevant data observed, and ?0.7 mmHg, 99% CI ?1.3 to 0, P = 0.008 in the sample with missing data imputed).Conclusion: there was no evidence of association between maternal pregnancy dietary iron intake, or maternal hemoglobin concentration (which is less likely to be biased by subjective reporting) with offspring outcomes. There was a modest inverse association between maternal iron supplement intake during pregnancy with offspring systolic blood pressure at 10 year

Studying the Structural Behaviour of RC Beams with Circular Openings of Different Sizes and Locations Using FE Method

This paper aims to investigate the structural behaviour of RC beams with circular openings of different sizes and locations modelled using ABAQUS FEM software. Seven RC beams with the dimensions of 1200 mm×150 mm×150 mm were tested under threepoint loading. Group A consists of three RC beams incorporating circular openings with diameters of 40 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm in the shear zone. However, Group B consists of three RC beams incorporating circular openings with diameters of 40 mm, 55 mm and 65 mm in the flexural zone. The final RC beam did not have any openings, to provide a control beam for comparison. The results show that increasing the diameter of the openings increases the maximum deflection and the ultimate failure load decreases relative to the control beam. In the shear zone, the presence of the openings caused an increase in the maximum deflection ranging between 4% and 22% and a decrease in the ultimate failure load of between 26% and 36% compared to the control beam. However, the presence of the openings in the flexural zone caused an increase in the maximum deflection of between 1.5% and 19.7% and a decrease in the ultimate failure load of between 6% and 13% relative to the control beam. In this study, the optimum location for placing circular openings was found to be in the flexural zone of the beam with a diameter of less than 30% of the depth of the beam